I gathered up the change from my sofa cushions. I begged friends and relatives who hadn't heard from me in years for their penny jugs and spare change. I even started to put together a GoFundMe page to "preserve a piece of history."
That GoFundMe page never went online. No one surrendered their loose or jugged coins to me and the money I found in my sofa, alas, wouldn't buy me a spare inner tube. So I tried use my charm, wit, erudition and looks as currency to bid on the bicycle Lady Diana rode to work before she became a Princess. You can guess how well that worked.
Anyway, somoene bought the 1970s Raleigh Traveler she pedaled to the nursery school where she worked until she was told that bicycling to work was unbecoming for a would-be royal.
The bike, dubbed the "shame bicycle" by the British tabloids, was expected to sell for 20,000 GBP. It fetched more than double that: 44,000 GBP, or about 62,000 USD at current exchange rates. Burstow and Hewett auctioned the bike on 28 April; the identity of the buyer was not disclosed.
Given the recent revelations of the Royal Family's and British tabloids' mistreatment of Meghan Markle, comparisons between her and the difficulty shy Diana had in living in the royal fishbowl were inevitable--and probably piqued interest in the bike. So...while I didn't get it, I wish its new owner well.
If nothing else, Diana was safer on it than in at least one other vehicle she rode. Riding it tarnished the repuatation of the Royal Family, at least in their imaginations. A ride she took one night in a Mercedes-Benz W 140 had far worse consequences.
(I'm not a conspiracy theorist, so I won't say that the Royal Family was behind it. But the thought has crossed my mind.)
